PRESENT-DAY FARMERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5193, 19 October 1927, Page 1

PRESENT-DAY FARMERS.

COMPARED WITH 30 YEARS AGO. POVERTY CRY DEPRECATED. “I don’t believe for a moment that therq is such poverty among the farmers of Taranaki that they were forced during the past winter to live on turnips and sleep in sacks,” said Mr R. Cock, one of the pioneers of the dairying industry, and a man who has played and still plays, a considerable part in the development of the resources of the province to a Taranaki News, reporter. “If you find me a farmer so indigent, I’ll willingly hand to him a 100 of flour, and three blankets. This sort of statement, does us no good,” continued Mr Cock. “It advertises us as a poor district, when, as a matter of fact, we are a very fortunate one. “I’ll guarantee that the farmer of to-day is far better off than he was 30 years ago, when he only got 2%d per gallon (equal to about 8d per lb buttejr-fat) for his milk, and then did not have to resort to turnips to subsist upon or to sleep in sacks. In those days the settler had no complaint ; he lived well,. tore into his work, built up the province, and made New Zealand what it is to-day—the finest country in the world. He was an example that shoaild be followed by the men of to-day, who really have little of which to complain.”